After reaching historic lows, violent offenses, property crimes are on the rise

Hate crimes

Homicides

The decades-long trend of declining crime across San Diego County took a turn last year when reported incidents increased by 7 percent and the overall crime rate rose by 6 percent.

Regional law enforcement officials say they are concerned but not necessarily alarmed.

“Nobody in law enforcement likes it when the crime rate goes up,” Sheriff Bill Gore said Wednesday, adding that it is a reason for concern. “Crime rates have been going down for 30 years. We didn’t think crime would go to zero.”

The 2012 numbers were released Wednesday by the San Diego Association of Governments, which each year tallies the seven major crimes tracked by the FBI: homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.

The countywide figures, in rounded numbers, show that reported crimes rose from 76,000 in 2011 to 81,000 in 2012, a 7 percent increase.

Violent crimes rose 8 percent; property crimes rose 7 percent.

Crime rose by about 6 percent in the city of San Diego, which had 35,000 crimes in 2011 compared with 37,000 in 2012.

Incorporated cities and unincorporated county areas served by the Sheriff’s Department saw an 8 percent increase in crime, from about 16,000 to 17,000.

The local numbers seem to echo — and exceed — a national upward trend in crime figures.

“Nationally, for the first six months of 2012, we saw a less than 2 percent increase in the numbers — a slight uptick,” said James Austin, president of the nonprofit group JFA Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based criminal justice research and consulting firm.

“By region, most of that increase is produced in the Northeast and the Western region, and San Diego is part of the Western region. So that is consistent.”

San Diego County authorities are investigating why the number of crimes rose last year.

Some are ready to place at least some of the blame on the state’s public safety realignment law, also known as Assembly Bill 109.

“It’s too early to say,” said Cynthia Burke, director of SANDAG’s criminal justice research division. “It’s something law enforcement is tracking.”

The realignment law went into effect in October 2011, shifting responsibility for certain lower-level criminals from the state to the counties. The counties are tasked with housing and supervising offenders convicted of nonviolent crimes. Some say the result is a strain on local law enforcement officials’ ability to keep an eye on the offenders once they get out of jail or prison.

San Diego police Chief Bill Lansdowne pointed out that in 2011, the city had its lowest crime rate in 42 years. Then came last year’s spike.

There were more homicides, rapes, assaults, home burglaries, larcenies and car thefts. The only crime category to drop was nonresidential burglaries.

“I believe AB 109 is starting to have an effect on our crime,” Lansdowne said. He said lower numbers of police officers, because of budget cuts, were also a likely factor.

Gore, too, said financial constraints and staff reductions have had their effect, and he hopes to fill 250 empty deputy positions by mid-2014.